Sunday, February 12, 2006

World Photo of the Year 2005

4,448 professional photographers from 122 countries entered 83,044 images in the most prestigious annual international competition in press photography, The 2005 World Press Photo. Yesterday, the international jury chose winners in ten categories as well as the Photo of the Year, which went to Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly of Reuters. The picture (above) shows the emaciated fingers of a one-year-old child pressed against the lips of his mother at an emergency feeding clinic in Niger. A devastating swarm of locusts and the worst drought in decades left millions of people short of food in the African state. The picture was taken in Tahoua, northwestern Niger, on 1 August 2005.